Exercise is one of the main keys to a healthy life. Neither too much nor too little, the recommended duration is moderate intensity exercise (150–300 minutes per week) and vigorous intensity exercise (75–150 minutes per week).
However, unfortunately there are still many people who do not follow these recommendations. On the other hand, research on the benefits of exercise for life is still minimal. Well, recent research has revealed that muscle-building exercise can make you live longer! really?
1. Engage nearly 500,000 participants
Loaded in British Journal of Sports Medicine In February 2022, Japanese researchers wanted to find out how muscle training (which is also combined with aerobic exercise) could reduce the risk of disease in adults.
For this reason, Japanese researchers examined 16 relevant studies in the period 2012–2020, the majority of which came from the United States (US), England, Scotland, Australia, and Japan. After being counted, the participants were 479,856 with ages 18 to 98 years, and were followed for an average of 25 years.
“All of these studies focused on muscle training such as weightlifting and calisthenics, but not on muscle-strengthening activities such as lifting heavy objects or gardening,” the Japanese researchers wrote.
Also read: 5 Simple Exercises at Home, Strengthen the Immune System
illustration of woman exercising muscles by lifting weights (pixabay.com/FabianoAdvertising)2. Results: muscle exercise reduces the risk of death from terminal illness
After examining data from the 16 studies, Japanese researchers found that muscle-strengthening activities can reduce the risk of:
- Mortality (15 percent to 40 percent when combined with aerobic activity).
- Cardiovascular disease (17 percent to 46 percent when combined with aerobic activity).
- Cancer (12 percent to 28 percent when combined with aerobic activity).
- Diabetes (17 percent).
With the duration of exercise 30-60 minutes per week, the risk is reduced by a maximum of 10-20 percent. However, if exercise is done more than 60 minutes per week, the researchers did not find any significant results.
While the researchers saw a 10 percent reduction in lung cancer risk, similar results were not found in other cancers, such as colon, kidney, bladder, and pancreatic cancers.
illustration of weightlifting (pexels.com/Karolina Grabowska)3. Lack of the study
The Japanese researchers noted that their study calculated the association between muscle-strengthening activities and their health benefits. In addition, this study is the first to assess the longitudinal association between muscle-strengthening activity and diabetes risk.
However, the researchers pointed out some drawbacks. In addition to the minimal number of studies, the majority of studies originating from the US are likely to have different results when conducted in the Asian region. Finally, as some studies are observational, there are several hidden factors that could have influenced the results.
“However, our findings should be interpreted with caution as the number of studies is still limited and we could not examine the frequency of muscle-strengthening activities. Large-scale studies are needed to examine the health benefits of vigorous-intensity muscle-strengthening activities,” the researchers wrote.
Also Read: Guaranteed Six Pack! These 7 Exercises for Abs at Home